Film | WALL-E

I've never been so enamored of a Pixar film--sure, there was the ground-breaking Toy Story in 1995, then there was Finding Nemo, The Incredibles, and Ratatouille just last year. And then there's WALL-E, which blows all of those films away, and more.

The movie's first 40 minutes alone doesn't have any dialogue at all, which is just brilliant, and hammers the point perfectly: a deserted Earth around 800 years in the future, literally overflowing with garbage, with one remaining Waste Allocation Load Lifter-Earth Class (WALL-E) unit, which somehow achieved sentience due to all those centuries of doing its trash-compacting job.

WALL-E's solitary, almost lonely existence is mostly defined by routine: trash compacting for most of the day, sorting and collecting trinkets, and watching clips of Hello, Dolly! on a magnified iPod screen, where 2 songs particularly resonate for him: "Put On Your Sunday Clothes" and "It Only Takes A Moment", with the latter making him yearn for some other kind of contact aside from the indestructible cockroach that's his only companion.

Said contact arrives in the form of EVE (short for Extra-terrestrial Vegetation Evaluator), a smooth, sleek hovering probe sent to Earth from a humongous space cruiser called the Axiom--with a classified "directive." WALL-E immediately falls for EVE, and doesn't hesitate to follow EVE to the Axiom when her directive takes over and is soon retrieved by a rocket that takes WALL-E on a space adventure like no other.

To go into detail here would spoil a lot, but to make a long story short, WALL-E soon meets the descendants of the humans who abandoned Earth, and his very presence changes the perceptions of both humans and robots alike for the better, as they all return home--because as the Captain puts it, they should "set things right."

WALL-E is a spectacular visual treat--the panoramic views of a dry, arid Earth filled with towering stacks of compacted trash is a sight to behold, and the film is filled with sharply contrasting imagery, like WALL-E's dilapidated form as compared with the hi-tech Axiom robots, and the barren, lifeless Earth as compared to the colorful, densely populated indoor decks of the Axiom.

The soundtrack is excellent, a mix of old and new music bound together by Thomas Newman's superb score. I hate musicals btw, but the use of 2 songs from Hello, Dolly! was freaking magnificent, and both fit in so well with the movie's themes. The end credits song, "Down to Earth" by Peter Gabriel, was great as well, and I've listened to this song for a gazillion times now that it's practically drilled into my brain.

Speaking of the end credits, even WALL-E's credits weren't spared of the awesomeness---the sequence is a feast for the eyes, showing a kind of gradual evolution of art techiniques and styles through the ages, as it also served to show us what eventually happened to the returning humans & robots on Earth.

It's also awesome that Pixar gave full credit to Ben Burtt as WALL-E's voice; after all, the now 60-year old Oscar-winning Sound Engineer was the man who created R2-D2's famous bleeps and burbles, Darth Vader's ominous labored breathing, and the unmistakable lightsaber sound effects, as well as other sound effects in the Star Wars films.

Aside from WALL-E, Burtt also created most of the voices and sound effects of the robots that populate the Axiom, among them my favorite, M-O (short for Microbe Obliterator), who's probably about as obsessive-compulsive as I am, LOL.

Of course, not everyone shares my high regard for this movie; some friends I know called it lame and boring because the first half had no dialogue, while some deplored the lack of action sequences. Obviously, they didn't get it, which just goes to show that you can't win 'em all.

Overall, the thing I find amazing about WALL-E is that a movie about supposed inanimate objects can have a tremendous amount of heart and soul. I'm not really a romantic--I usually despise mushy, sentimental crap in movies, but I was incredibly moved by WALL-E. That alone makes it my best film of 2008 so far (I've seen it three times now), and I'm rooting for it getting a much deserved Oscar nomination for Best Picture. Highly, highly recommended.

Gizmos | Icon Watch

The 8-bit era of videogaming was a truly remarkable time. Everything seemed to be made of blocky pixels, but they were mostly fun to play; you really didn't need a college degree or a genius-level I.Q. to play the games, just pick them up and go--they were that simple.

This is probably why I have a fondness for pixelated images, and this watch being sold by the Museum of Modern Art is no exception. The Icon Watch looks just like a bitmap graphic come to life, and it just oozes retro-coolness no matter which way you view it.



This awesome watch was created by &Design, a Japanese design firm based in Tokyo. Made of an ABS/stainless steel body with a polyurethane band, it's available in two colors, black or white, but it appears that the Museum only sells the black one for now.

With a retail price of $75.00 (around P 3,400) and available only from the MOMA store, the Icon Watch currently seems out of reach. I really want one though... T_T

TV | Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles

When I found out they were making a Terminator TV series, I went "not again..." I thought that they had ended the franchise with the third movie, Terminator 3: Rise of the Machines. I actually enjoyed that film, even though it was mostly panned and didn't do all that well.

Apparently the producers didn't want to give up on the series yet, and decided to develop a TV series starring Sarah Connor. But wait, wasn't Sarah already dead in the third movie? Motivated by fan feedback that killing her off was a bad idea in the first place, they brought her back--by setting the series right after the events of the second movie, Terminator 2: Judgement Day.

The pilot episode is set in 1999, about 2 years after the events of Terminator 2, with Sarah and her son, John Connor, as wanted fugitives. Hot on their trail is a persistent FBI Agent, and something else, another Terminator (no big surprise there) named Cromartie. But the Connors have a surprise ally, a female Terminator named Cameron (named as a tribute to the series creator James Cameron), who was sent from the future to protect John.

The main cast of Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles. From left to right: Summer Glau as Cameron; Thomas Dekker as John Connor; Lena Headey as Sarah Connor

As events escalate, the series takes an unusual twist, as all the main characters leap forward in time to the year 2007, which makes them closer to the predicted Judgement Day that's supposed to take place in 2011. Unfortunately, Cromartie also makes the time jump, and the series focuses on Sarah, John, and Cameron as they try to adjust living in 2007, avoiding Cromartie and at the same time preventing the activation of Skynet.

Lena Headey takes over as Sarah Connor from the role that Linda Hamilton played in the films. Headey is probably well-known for playing Queen Gorgo of Sparta in 300, and she makes a really fine Sarah Connor; just look at the teaser poster below--no complaints from me whatsoever, hehe.

The awesome promo posters for Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles

Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles is one of the few current shows that have tougher female characters than the male characters. In fact, I hardly notice the other lead male characters--once I see Sarah and Cameron onscreen wielding huge guns, I tend to forget about everything else, LOL

With 9 episodes produced for Season 1, this is one of the best new shows for me this year. The only bad thing I can say about it is that it virtually negates the entire scenario of the third movie, and the producers now say that Terminator 3 takes place in an alternate timeline. I'm not even sure how all this fits in with the upcoming Terminator 4 movie; time travel hurts my head a lot, and the less I try to figure it out, the better.

Music | Peter Gabriel - Sledgehammer

This is definitely one of the greatest music videos ever made; it's always highly ranked in various music video lists, and it's certainly among my best music videos of all time.

When Peter Gabriel released Sledgehammer as a single from his album So in 1986, it sounded just okay to me. Until I saw the video, and everything changed...the song became downright superb, and the video itself became the sort of example that others would try to emulate.



Directed by Stephen Johnson, Sledgehammer was a visual tour de force that featured claymation, pixilation, stop motion animation, and everything else thrown in, including 2 dancing oven-ready chickens, LOL

Film | The X-Files: I Want To Believe

It's been about 6 years now since The X-Files TV series went off the air; I was a big follower of this show, mainly because I happened to watch the pilot episode and became hooked, which led to me watching every episode and one movie for the next 9 years.

To describe the entire plot of The X-Files as complex is an understatement--it was incredibly complex and convoluted, with more twists and turns than your average soap opera. On the surface, it was about two FBI Agents assigned to the Bureau's X-Files Division, a department that investigated fringe cases that weren't your typical crime cases.

These cases involved the strange and bizarre, which included mutants, monsters, and extra-terrestrials. It turns out that the government was part of a shadowy syndicate that made a deal with aliens to colonize the earth in exchange for...okay, I'm already lost.

Anyway, the two agents, Fox Mulder and Dana Scully, called each other by their last names (I don't know anyone else who does this) and seem to have more lives than the proverbial cat, as they would usually do a lot of stupid things that almost get them killed.

The series ended without resolving its central mythological arc about the aliens, annoying long-time viewers (including me). So imagine my delight upon finding out that a second movie was scheduled to be released this year. After 6 long years, I can maybe learn what happened to Mulder & Scully and see if they finally defeated those alien bastards.

Or maybe not. The X-Files: I Want To Believe doesn't deal with anything about the aliens. Instead, it's similar to their "Monster of the Week" episodes, in which they deal with stuff not related to the alien plotline, specifically, disappearing victims and reappearing body parts--it gets pretty gruesome.

While I found the movie interesting enough, it probably would've done better as a made-for TV movie instead. But it was great to see Mulder & Scully again after all these years; they've noticeably aged, but still together and still calling each other by their last names. The movie was tailor-made for diehard X-Philes, as there were a lot of references scattered throughout that would only make sense to fans.

And as the credits rolled, towards the end part, the producers provided the ultimate fan service by showing a nice little scene, and it was awesome. Now if they'd only go back to the alien conspiracy theme...

The 2008 Beijing Olympics Opening Ceremony

I used to watch the Olympics religiously since I became aware of it during my high school years, but as time went on and the broadcasts became nothing more than commercial-laden crap, all that remained of my interest was focused on the Opening Ceremony.

And last night, at precisely 8:00pm on the 8th day of the 8th month in the year 2008, the 29th Olympic Games opened in Beijing, China with a spectacular ceremony that involved around 20,000 participants and lasted more than 4 hours.

The highlight of each opening ceremony is undoubtedly the lighting of the Olympic flame, and previous ceremonies in other countries have tried to outdo each other by staging elaborate stunts that would leave everyone watching gasp in astonishment, and this year was no exception.

When the Olympic torch (nicely designed with "Lucky Cloud" symbols based on traditional Chinese scrolls) started its final run across the now-filled Bird's Nest stadium, it ultimately passed on to Li Ning, a retired Chinese gymnast who won several gold medals during the 1984 Olympics.

What happened next was pure awesomeness, as he was lifted high up in the air on wires, where he proceeded to "run" across the perimeter of the stadium roof, over a giant unfurling scroll that was projected along the roof edge, until he reached the cauldron itself, which looked exactly like a humongous Olympic torch that seemed to be part of the unfurling scroll. He then reached up and lit the pipe attached to the base, where the flames spiraled upwards right to the top and ignited the cauldron--freaking brilliant!

Li Ning makes his way to the Olympic cauldron
Photo credits: Cameron Spencer/Getty Images

...where he lights the Olympic Flame
Photo credits: Xinhua News Agency

The now-lit Olympic Flame burns high over the Bird's Nest Stadium
Photo credits: Alexander Hassenstein/Bongarts/Getty Images

Don't really care about the politics and negativity that surrounded these Olympic Games; for that one brief moment, everything was great, and that's how it should be remembered.